Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-29
DAILY HERALD.
EDUCATED HORSES.
Prof. Bartholomew Ideas on
the subject.


A representative of the HERALr
called on Prof. Bartholomew yester
day with view of ascertaining how
it was that he had succeeded in bring
ing forth so much intelligence as hat
been exhibited in the horses which
have been before the public since
1880. The Professor said that during
his many years experience witt
horses he had found that they were
very much lihe human beings, and
that in teaching them he had to deal
with them as the teacher does with q
child. 1t required vast amount OF
patience, but if they were treated
kindly and encouraged it was not SC
hard as might be imagined to make a
horse understand what was said
to him. In performing before
an audience the horse depends
much more in the surroundings than
human being, for the reason that
they cannot use their Intellect with
such quickness. Thus if on the open
ing night something which they are
accustomed to use is missing it bothers
them to considerable degree and
sometimes interferes with the celebrity
of their movements.
In training the horses the Professor
had taken advantage of traits he had
observed in each particular animal
and as no two exhibited the same
traits variety Of features was given to
a performance which otherwise would
cost considerable time and trouble
In performing it made no difference
to the animals if one OF them were
absent. The others went on and
acted their parts just as if nothing was
the matter.
1t seems almost incredible that
Nellie's feat in rolling the barrel
could be performed with such de-
gree of intelligence as she exhibits.
1t seems that she has learned that a
barrel is likely to roll digaonally
instead of straight, and to
correct this she exercises her
reasoning power and while pushing
one end of the barrel forward with
one foot will pull the other end back
with the other foot. She has also
learned that in rolling the barrel up
an inclined board she must keep her
feet over the board or else if the bar
rel slips off she will injure her limbs.
In this and other particulars she shows
so much intelligence that even her
master considers her phenomenon.
In regard to the viciousness of ami
mrls the Professor thinks that there
is not an animal which cannot be
broken of it. He had taken in
hand during the course of his long
animals and had cured them with very
little trouble. The Professor did not
blame the horses which stand around
the streets for exhibiting vicious
traits. As a general rule they are
treated badly and it is only natural
that they should retaliate. The in
telligent animals exhibited by him
were not vicious for the reason
that they had no cause.
They were not fretted nor worked too
hard, and in consequence were always
willing to take their parts in the per-
formance. The professor called atten-
tion to the limbs of the animals, which
did not show sign of blemish, nor
were their feet shod. So healthy were
they all that he said he only hoped he
would live long enough to see how
long they would keep their health. 1t
was just such animals that would live
info the forties. After being intro
duced to each of the animals the re-
porter Left with the feeling that he
knew very little about horses.